


Unconditional

by eerian_sadow



Category: Saiyuki
Genre: Character Study, Gen, friendship fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-02
Updated: 2011-04-02
Packaged: 2017-10-17 11:16:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/176305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eerian_sadow/pseuds/eerian_sadow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He tries to pretend, but the others see right through him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unconditional

Unconditional  
100 Themes Challenge  
Theme #2—Love

Love.

It was almost a foreign concept. Something distant that he couldn’t quite understand, even when looked at in context, but that he knew when he saw it. Something that, perhaps, he remembered having a long time ago.

But that past and that remembered love have long been buried by grief, sorrow and loneliness.

He tries to fool himself, telling himself that he doesn’t need or want love to survive. That it isn’t important—just a tool for getting under his skin and hurting him so deeply once again. He denies that he may need any form of affection to be able to continue this life.

He claims that he doesn’t want anyone’s love.

But the monks at the temple have noted the changes in Genjo Sanzo since he brought the ragged orphan child back to the temple. They have noticed a lessening of the harsh lines around his purple eyes, a less cold set to the young priest’s mouth. And while he hasn’t quit smoking, he has cut back from three packs a day to two.

No one can help but attribute this change to the undying loyalty and unconditional love that the boy Goku shows the priest. Some even remark that others would do well to follow the child’s example.

Sanzo pretends not to hear this gossip, continuing to tell himself that he needs no one’s affection. And he begins to wonder what he might have become if he hadn’t heard the voice of the monkey chained in the mountains.


End file.
